1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and system for efficiently executing a predefined process within a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a graphical technique for executing a predefined process within the data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems are becoming increasingly complex as technology and software become more complicated. As the complexity of such systems increases, it is of increasing importance to simplify the interface between a user and the data processing system in order to render execution of selected tasks within the data processing system more efficient, if possible.
Recently selected software applications have been created which support the creation and utilization of user defined macros that may be applied within some context of that application. For example, modern word processing applications often permit a user to enter a "record" mode and thereafter specify a series of procedural steps which are to be recorded and executed each time the user invokes that macro. While such systems permit a user to define a macro or batch file for execution within a particular context of an application, no such procedure exists which permits a user to define a user specified process which may be applied to any number of arbitrarily selected user interface objects, such as icons, files, documents or the like, in an application independent manner.
One reason that such known user defined macros are limited to a single context is the difficulty in specifying the manner in which the predefined processes which make up the macro are to be applied to a particular object within the data processing system. It should thus be apparent that a need exists for a technique whereby iterative processing of objects within an electronic desktop may be efficiently performed and applied to an arbitrary object within a data processing system.